


Long Journey Home

by pandaspots



Series: Erejean Week 2015 [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Based on a True Story, Erejean Week 2015, Gen, Roadtrip, Single Parent AU, of sorts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-30
Updated: 2015-03-30
Packaged: 2018-03-20 08:41:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,047
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3643902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pandaspots/pseuds/pandaspots
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jean hates traveling by bus and he hates it even more when there’s a small child in there. Thank god the baby is a small quiet angel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Long Journey Home

**Author's Note:**

> This is based on a true story of when we were traveling by bus and got stranded midway through with a small child who was an angel and only started crying because he got hungry bless his soul  
> and then we put on my collection of CDs and talked about the pros and cons of Green Day's new phase, I couldn't make this up if I tried, i got stranded 12 hours in a 12 hour trip with a bunch of weirdos.

There is one thing that Jean hates more than traveling by bus anywhere, and it is boarding a 12 hour trip with a single father and his months old offspring. He just knows the child will end up crying for half the trip.

Which is why he's pleasantly surprised when it's hour eight and the only reason the kid started bawling was because she was hungry. Which is swiftly outweighed by the fact they're in the middle of nowhere with no appliances at hand to heat up the baby's formula bottle.

The guy (which he found out is named Eren through his extended conversation with his seat neighbor) has been holding the bottle for half an hour now, while the baby cried out. He tried, but did not succeed, in making the baby's sobs subside. Thankfully there was phone signal, and the driver told them help was underway, in the shape of another bus. But the baby didn't care, and thus more and more people were starting to get cranky about the baby crying, Jean included. But he knew better than telling the guy to make his kid shut up, because babies would cry until they got what they wanted (in this case, a warm bottle of milk).

The bus driver informed that they were only fifty miles out of the nearest city, but the corn fields still unnerved Jean. He wanted out of this fast. He tried to console his poor brain (which was starting to hurt) that the child would only cry for one hour more, if the other bus got there in ten minutes. It was still too much.

The bus got there in 25 minutes, which fitted Jean's most realistic expectations, and made him think that they weren't so far out of the last city stop. The driver was bringing a car water heater, for which Eren seemed infinitely grateful.

“Oh, thank fuck, now the annoying kid will stop its useless wailing.” Someone in the bus said, louder than they probably intended.

Before Eren could retaliate (which would probably not reflect nicely onto his baby), Jean jumped to the baby's defense.

“She's been quiet the whole trip, you asshole. Now, unless you have some magic over there that makes a baby that doesn't know how to speak be able to understand that their crying isn't gonna make food readily available, you shut up.” Okay, so he was tired and that was not the best comeback he could've come up with, but asswipe seemed to shut up nicely and the baby's dad didn't need to upset their baby further, so all was well.

When the girl was happily suckling away on her bottle, Eren sat down heavily on his seat in the row beside Jean.

“Thank you over there. I have no idea how, but I would have beaten the shit out of that shitface back then.”

“You're welcome. I don't care much for babies, but she's been an alright one so far.” He shrugged.

“She's just nine months old, so she's not as annoying as she's been. Now I can sleep through the night.” He laughed, adjusting the baby in his arms.

“So how come you got a baby this young, anyway? You don't look like the type to knock a girl up and leave.” Jean commented, yawning.

The guy looked uncomfortable, and shifted slightly, pulling the bottle from the girl's mouth so she would breathe a little, before letting her resume feeding.

“You're right... It's kind of a backwards story. But long story short, I can't both work and care for her like I'd like to, so I'm kind of moving back with my parents until she's older.” He said, tense.

There was a lull in conversation, while Eren fiddled with his daughter's dress. Jean idly noticed they looked very alike, from her tanned skin to light eyes and brown hair, even though her hair was lighter than his. He was, undoubtedly, her father.

Now that he stopped to think, he looked oddly familiar too. He reminded him of this one girl, Irem, who was loudmouthed, terribly slutty, and scary good at anything she felt invested in. She wore a lot of masculine clothes, and had still managed to look hot. Jean shook his head. If anything, Eren was one of the seven thousand people in the planet that looked like each other.

“Where are you getting off at?” He asked, watching as the baby finished up her bottle.

“Boston.”

“Same. So, I was thinking, she can't eat those baby formula things?”

Jean really didn't know why he was getting so invested into that kid. Maybe because she was the only one that didn't outright suck, or because her father was a hot piece of the highway to hell, but the conversation was the longest he's ever had with someone who's a parent, Sasha and Connie notwithstanding (their child was an angel, if you took into consideration his parents, and he was his godfather too; some parental pride went there).

“I'm trying to make a point of only getting those small business ones or making them myself, but I didn't have the time to go to Farmers' Market and get some fruit, so I had to make do with milk. She doesn't mind. Too much. It's a good choice for short trips, if this was still a short one. Might have to stop by some market on my way to my parents'.”

“Sounds harsh. It's why I never wanted to be a parent, to be honest. Too much work, too many literally life-altering decisions to take.”

Seemingly it was a somewhat sore subject to Eren, who was putting the baby upright on his shoulder, to burp her.

“Well, I didn't plan to become a father too, yet here I am. Sometimes it's not a choice, it's you being stupid and using an old condom.” Eren complained, patting his daughter's back lightly.

“Thank god I'm smart enough to always use new ones.”

“You remind me of a smartass I used to know in high school. Real fucking annoying dude.”

A weird silence fell between them, broken when the girl finally burped in a weird, off way and Jean giggled. It was three stops and almost six hours before they finally arrived in Boston.

 

**Author's Note:**

> AWAIT TOMORROW WITH THE THRILLING CONTINUATION IN THIS SERIES
> 
> concrit, comments, yellings, all welcome!


End file.
